


history is now (and manhattan, odessa, ft. lee)

by morningeve



Series: et in arcadia ego [1]
Category: Heroes (TV), Heroes Reborn (TV)
Genre: F/M, Family Relationships - Freeform, Gen, Morally Grey, petrelli family feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 06:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5153963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morningeve/pseuds/morningeve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His mother turned up on this door the morning after their argument, harried and much more aged than she was when she left the night before. Peter knew instantly something was wrong.</p><p>“You have vision, Peter, in ways even I do not. Preserve the future.”</p><p>or, where Peter's been this entire time, his version of Odessa, his future</p>
            </blockquote>





	history is now (and manhattan, odessa, ft. lee)

**Author's Note:**

> reference to little gidding in the title, bc do you know me at all?

**FOUR YEARS AGO**

**JUNE 13, 2011**

**MANHATTAN, NY**

His mother turned up on this door the morning after their argument, harried and much more aged than she was when she left the night before. Peter knew instantly something was wrong. Her eyes were weary as they roved over his face hungrily, trying to memorize every detail. Wiry white wisps of hair framed her face, more full of wrinkles than Peter remembered it being. “Oh, Peter,” she whispered, and pulled him down for a hug. “I’ve missed you.” Peter wrapped his arms around her awkwardly. “I’ve missed you.”

“Mom?”

One cup of earl grey, a tablespoon of cream, and two sugars later, Angela said, “You’re angry. I can tell.”

Peter huffed and rubbed his eyes. “Because this is nothing new!” he exclaimed. “I thought we were done with the Company. This was supposed to be a family!”

“It still is.”

“No! Sending yourself back? This is about cleaning up your mistakes. Again!”

“In three days, when I return to try to reason with you, you will cut off all ties with me. Primatech and Renautas _will_ form the partnership. You will disappear from my life because of it.”

“Mom-”

“Because I have told you to,” she continued. “This is how it happens Peter. This is how I remember it, and it must be this way. Any deviation from the timeline will be catastrophic. You must _not_ be at the Summit on June 13th, no matter what happens.”

“Why…” Peter trailed off, trying to find the words. How many times, how many times until they could finally get this right? Until the world stopped wanting to play a cosmic joke on all of them? Why him, them, now? Again? “You know I can’t let those people die in Odessa.”

Angela stood up, walking over to her son. Her fingers were tender as they stroked his chin, tracing the lines her fingers had made so many times before. What she would have given to fix her family in the past several years living isolated with Malina and the household staff. How much she fought against lessening the pain her decisions had wrought upon her children.

“You can’t save everyone. That is the truth we have to admit to ourselves time and time again. No matter how many healing powers you have, no matter how fast you are. I have dreaded this day for many years, dreamt about it often, thought over and over again about how I told you all the awful things I did in my life, I did for you and for Nathan. As if it were a perfectly acceptable excuse. I’ve always known that it isn’t, but unfortunately it is the truth. We do horrible things to protect our children, and I’m afraid I am asking you to do the same. You have to let those people die. Let Suresh be captured. Let Noah live on his own. Let Erica catch Micah Sanders.”

“Why?”

“You have vision, Peter, in ways even I do not. Preserve the future. Protect your family, every single one of them. Protect those who will need help. We need one of us looking after the rest. You have always had heart. It will be what saves them.” How could she tell them of the Underground, of the haven in Vancouver, the grounds in New Jersey? All of the pieces floating in her dreams, she had just begun to piece together. Instead, she passed him a photograph. “Her name is Malina. She’s going to help save the world.”

She watched as Peter took in the girl. Her blonde hair, her fierce eyes, the same smile as her mother’s. The resemblance was near uncanny.

The world was always bigger than her. It was a realization she had come upon when her ability first manifested. Dreams that involved more than just the people she knew. Those were the ones that were easier to ignore in a way, but when she read the paper or saw the news on television, a shiver would pass through her. And to find herself in the middle of such vastness and confusion as a child had been frightening to say the last. It made her feel insignificant, even with such an ability.

As an adult, to find her own family caught in the middle of that vastness, of being significant and not simultaneously, had been even more overwhelming. Angela watched as a myriad of emotions of flickered across Peter’s face, trying to decipher the girl, until he finally turned to look at her.

So she explained. “She’s Claire’s daughter.” 

**ONE YEAR AGO**

**JUNE 13, 2014**

**ODESSA, TX**

The elegance of a sword was leagues more enchanting than the power of a gun. Hiro had thought so from childhood, taken by stories of his country’s past -- from stories that filtered in from America to the visions of Japan’s old films. The singular, long curved blade of a katana. The daishō mark of a samurai. A singular uncomplicated piece of finely crafted metal. It commanded respect, as he had told Nathan once. “People will handle guns without discipline. They think aim and pull the trigger. They are careless. When you pick up a weapon, the first thing you must do is respect it. Respect what it can do. A weapon will harm. A wielder must be ready for that and the consequences.”

But Hiro had lived long enough, seen enough, to know that all the respect in the world did not overcome the fact that bullets were much faster than even the best swordsman. This was it. The last panel. Already bleeding out in one leg and staring down the barrel of the gun of the last Harris clone.

But the shot never came.

Harris’s finger was tense around the trigger, just the slightest bit of pressure already applied. He was still as a stone, unblinking.

A man rippled into view.

“Peter Petrelli?” Scar and all the things Hiro had once saw the future to be. It sat oddly on his face, the rest of his features otherwise soft and open. His heart was beating fast -- the shock from being alive or from seeing this man again?

Peter dropped to the floor, pulling off his jacket and pressing it to Hiro’s leg. “Emma will want to look at that. Both our healers are out for the night. It was an eventful day.” Scanning the room, he continued, “We need to get out of here before the find the both of us again.” Hiro’s swords floated up into the air. “You might want to take those. You good to teleport?”

All of the words dried up in his throat. His thoughts were focused solely on the man before him, a friend he hadn’t heard from in years, a man he had long considered dead. “But how?”

The scar rippled oddly as Peter smiled the same crooked smile through the same compassionate eyes.

“Butterflies.”

**FOUR YEARS AGO**

**JUNE 13, 2011**

**MANHATTAN, NY**

“What do you do these days, Peter?” Angela asked at the door.

“Fly, mostly.”

“Always a good one to have.” She smiled to herself. Soon enough, she thought. Soon enough. Leaning up, she gave Peter a kiss on the cheek. “May we meet again.” Four years seemed so far away.

“I love you mom.”

“I love you too Peter.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dunh dunh dunhhhhh, tbc  
> What Angela actually tells Peter is purposefully left vague. Harris alive is a plot bunny, but I haven't decided to let Peter kill anyone yet -- even if it's a clone.

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be part of a larger work, a larger universe, eventually becoming part of my Heroes/The 100 crossover. But for now, this is my version of the unseen Heroes Reborn universe (which ultimately has very little effect on the lives of The 100 characters).


End file.
